FCA Compliance Audit Services for Financial Firms
Our FCA compliance audit provides a detailed, independent assessment of how well your firm meets regulatory expectations. We review governance, internal controls, business processes, and risk management to identify strengths, weaknesses, and immediate areas for improvement.
How Well Is Your Firm Really Performing?
Our Benchmarking Compliance Audit identifies where your firm is performing strongly, where weaknesses are emerging, and where urgent improvements are needed.
So often when companies grow, they need new policies, procedures, processes and often times they don’t have the time to take a step back, look at the overall business and ensure that the new governance gets embedded.
Over time, the new procedures and processes may not actually flow very well, and the staff, and directors, take short-cuts to make things easier; better for clients and less bulky for the staff. Unfortunately, these heuristics are what cause conduct risk crystallisation and on analysis, show that things are not working so well and in many cases, not according to policy or the set procedures and processes as expected.
Exposed by regulatory visits, specific or themed, these aspects then open up a whole can of worms, where no-one can rely on the written word and this can then throw the whole business and it’s management (systems and controls) into question.
Our benchmarking audit highlights where processes are working well, where they fall short, and where urgent improvements are required. We help you understand the true state of your systems and controls—before the regulator does.
What Our FCA Compliance Audit Covers
Governance & Senior Management Oversight
Compliance Framework & Procedures
AML, CTF, Sanctions & Financial Crime Controls
Compliance Monitoring Programme Effectiveness
File Reviews & Past Business Oversight
Why Choose an Independent Compliance Audit?
Our specialists provide an impartial assessment of your governance, controls, policies, and regulatory compliance. You’ll receive a detailed written report with clear findings, risk ratings, and practical recommendations.
Whether you require a one-off benchmarking review or an annual independent audit as part of your Compliance Monitoring Plan, we can support you.
Compliance Benchmarking Audit — Download the Brochure
View real audit examples and understand the depth of analysis we provide. Download our brochure or complete the form, and one of our specialists will get in touch.
Need a Targeted Review of a Specific Compliance Area?
We frequently conduct focused reviews in areas such as AML, Financial Crime, governance, and file monitoring. Our ICA-qualified specialists can perform a deep-dive assessment and provide a concise recommendations report tailored to your exact needs.
Quality Compliance Department
A Compliance Department You Can Depend On
We can implement your projects in one of three ways;
- Project Manage your Staff and provide experiential assistance
- Implement alongside your staff using a mixed project team
- Project manage and implement the whole project on your behalf
This ensures you always receive the right expertise, at the right time.
Free Compliance Resources
We provide a range of complimentary FCA compliance guides, templates, and informational brochures. Book your Discovery Call and we’ll send the resources most relevant to your firm.
Book Yours Today and see how much more value we offer!
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
More about our services and how we can help you.
An FCA compliance benchmarking audit is an independent review of how your firm’s governance, systems and controls measure up against regulatory expectations and good practice. We assess your framework, test a sample of activity and highlight strengths, weaknesses and areas where you can reduce risk.
Most firms benefit from a full independent compliance audit every 12–24 months, or sooner if there has been significant growth, a change in business model, or previous regulatory feedback. Regular reviews help demonstrate proactive oversight and allow you to address issues before they become findings.
Typical reviews cover governance and senior management oversight, compliance procedures, AML/CTF and financial crime controls, sanctions screening, your compliance monitoring plan, and past business or file reviews. The scope can be tailored to your permissions and risk profile.
Yes. We work with a wide range of FCA-regulated firms, including investment firms, brokers, payment and e-money institutions, consumer credit firms and insurance intermediaries. The audit is tailored to your permissions, scale and complexity.
We can perform audits on-site, remotely, or using a hybrid approach. In all cases we review documentation, sample records, and—where appropriate—interview key staff to understand how processes work in practice as well as on paper.
We plan the audit carefully to minimise disruption. Most of the work is document-based and can be scheduled around your busiest periods. Where interviews or meetings are required, these are agreed in advance with your team.
You receive a detailed written report summarising our findings, risk ratings and practical recommendations. The report can be used as evidence of independent assurance for your Board, senior management and, where appropriate, the regulator.
Yes. We can provide ongoing support to help you prioritise actions, update policies and procedures, deliver training and embed any new controls, either working alongside your team or delivering projects on your behalf.
Have Questions?
Speak to a Compliance Specialist Today
